in the meantime, can washington deliver a deal? investors seem a bit more hopeful today after comments from congressional leaders this morning. the market indeed turn around when they spoke. >> yes, however, erskine bowles, the foreman debt commission co-chair, one of the arkt tects of the simpson/bowles plan, told maria yesterday he still has real concerns. listen. >> if we get over the cliff, we don't have a deal, and the market doesn't anticipate that we're actually going to be so stupid as to go over the cliff, then i think you'll see the market really crash. >> well, so what is larry cantor at barclays telling his clients? for you, this is partly a timing issue. if it does take a long time, if we do go to the brink t would be worse for the markets, don't you think? >> absolutely. and it could well do that. one thing i want to point out here is cliff is actually a bad word. people seem to think over $600 billion of tax increases and spending cutting are going to hit the economy all at once on january 1st. that's not true. the 6